Board Members and Evaluation

Many years of participatory evaluation practice show that involvement of multiple stakeholders is beneficial. It is our steadfast
belief that evaluators, funders, program providers and their board members can all be meaningfully engaged in program
evaluation, but all parties need to be on the same page about the following.
1. Evaluations are partly social (because they involve human beings), partly political (because knowledge is power), and only
partly technical (Herman, Morris, Fitz-Gibbons, 1996). All three of these evaluation features, not just technical design,
should be considered when stakeholders discuss evaluation.
2. Evaluation data can be collected using qualitative methods (e.g., observations, interviews) and/or quantitative methods
(e.g., surveys, practical testing of subjects). Although there has been much debate about which strategies and types of data
are best, current thinking indicates that both are valuable, can be collected and analyzed rigorously, and can be
combined to address key evaluation questions.
3. There are multiple ways to address most evaluation needs. Different evaluation needs call for different designs, types of
data and data collection strategies.

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Date Of Record Release

2009-01-07 18:09:57

Description

Many years of participatory evaluation practice show that involvement of multiple stakeholders is beneficial. It is our steadfast
belief that evaluators, funders, program providers and their board members can all be meaningfully engaged in program
evaluation, but all parties need to be on the same page about the following.
1. Evaluations are partly social (because they involve human beings), partly political (because knowledge is power), and only
partly technical (Herman, Morris, Fitz-Gibbons, 1996). All three of these evaluation features, not just technical design,
should be considered when stakeholders discuss evaluation.
2. Evaluation data can be collected using qualitative methods (e.g., observations, interviews) and/or quantitative methods
(e.g., surveys, practical testing of subjects). Although there has been much debate about which strategies and types of data
are best, current thinking indicates that both are valuable, can be collected and analyzed rigorously, and can be
combined to address key evaluation questions.
3. There are multiple ways to address most evaluation needs. Different evaluation needs call for different designs, types of
data and data collection strategies.

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EERL is a product of a community college-based National Science Foundation Center, the Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center (ATEEC), and its partners.